I’ve noticed activity down since the end of the month and fear many HI’s didn’t renew. I’m an annual member and was very surprised to learn just how many, who had been on the board for so may years, were monthly subscribers. I guess many of them didn’t renew their monthly or are still thinking about it. I really hope we don’t lose them.
And while I could be wrong, I THINK all the Boards are still free, even if you were not a paying customer, so, I don’t think anyone’s subscription has “expired.” I just logged in with an account that is NOT a “paying” account and I could access the “pay” boards. I think all the Boards are free through at least July.
So I don’t think any lack of traffic is due to the month change.
This board is like a week old. The “Insider” info is at least as good as it ever was, better in my opinion. The number of regular fan posters may or may not be down. It seems like this time of year the board is pretty dead every year. I could be wrong. It probably is a little down due to change. People don’t like change. Others will take a little bit of time to make their way over here. I am not going to come to any conclusions about traffic until the season starts.
I agree with your assessment, timing of move etc., but I think as bad as it was mostly, the availability of recruiting info provided by Scout was a big part of why some of us were on a pay board to begin with. Specifically, the ranking of the schools, recruits signed by each school was of great interest to me.
I guess as Matt said if that’s what interest you then stay with Scout or other pay sight that provides that type info.
right now, I am a monthly subscriber. Initially I grumbled a bit about the increase, but decided I can afford $60.00 a year extra, especially since I now get the magazine… I will probably look at the yearly plan again.
The additional content already makes the increase worth it.
My only complaint is the icons. I really dislike the post icons, but they aint bad enough for me to fuss overly much.
The whole impetus for this was that what we were getting from Scout was getting worse, not better. That applied to Clay, Matt et al, but it also applies to those of us reading the site. They couldn’t be bothered to rate kids in a timely manner, or hire enough people to do those ratings. I’m sure Greg Powers and people like that were doing all they could do, but it wasn’t adequate for anyone.
And as Clay noted, Scout had gotten rid of many of its recruiting reporters. There had been complaints for years about the poor coverage of Arkansas athletes, Sosa, D-Mac, and others. So the coverage had not been good and then they reduced it.
I understand completely that what is “valuable” to one person isn’t to another. For me, I didn’t get anything out of Scout. Others, did. I understand that.